Building High? Watch your numbers!

Chris Tilley | Editor-in-Chief
01 July 2002

Its time to educate the masses!.
Those sneaky folk at Microsoft Mobile (Microsoft Sneaky.... This authors saying no more) have changed the ActiveSync 3.5 product build number.

Admittedly HPC Factor ran this back in March, so anyone who picked up on this back then, don't fret. Microsoft haven't been fiddling again up to the time of writing.

For everyone else, who's wondering what exactly I'm on about.

Microsoft ActiveSync 3.5 was released on the 6th August 2001. The release was quietly carried out, and from the vantage point of the guy's and gals at Microsoft Mobile, seemed to have been a release that they were aiming at the Pocket PC platform.

The product build number (The number of times Microsoft ActiveSync 3.5's development team made a new package of the 3.5 components before and including the release version) was 1176 and all was well.

However in the early months of 2002 Microsoft, unannounced (at least to the general public) updated this build version. It wasn't an ordinary increase however. The build number shot up from 1176 to a staggering 12007.

So what happened. Was ActiveSync 3.5 really so buggy that they had to rebuild its code 10,831 times. A feat not even achieved by Windows build numbers.

The answer in all likelihood is No. Between the initial release time of ActiveSync 3.5.0.1176 and the updated build 3.5.0.12007 a significant event in Microsoft product timeline took place... We all became eXPerienced.

Windows XP and Office XP arrived. With this it is safe to assume that the various internal divisions of Microsoft, Including the Mobile Application & Device division received copies of these new products to check for compatibility issues. They found some, and fixed them over the course of the Build change.

What do you get for your 3.8MB Download?

Build 12007 contains a few backend improvements that help in the reliability of the PDA connection and the data synchronisation process.

There are also some improvements to be found if you are connecting and synchronising your device over an 'ActiveSync Server', commonly known as Microsoft Mobile Information Server (MIS):

• Improved partnership wizard to establish a connection between MIS 2002 and your Windows CE Powered PDA
• Improved configuration options for connections with MIS 2002

Finally there have been one or two minor cosmetic improvements to ActiveSync which bring it in line with the overall look and feel of Windows XP. The most obvious of these changes is the new Windows Explorer Icon that is listed in 'My Computer'.

How do I know if I have the latest build?

1. Open ActiveSync either from the Start Menu or by double clicking the Icon in your System Tray
2. Select the 'Help' menu
3. Choose 'About Microsoft ActiveSync'

HPC Factor recommend that all users of Windows CE 2.0 and above Handheld PC & Tablet PC devices download and install the latest version of ActiveSync. Click Here to Download